The Cook Lab teaches middle schoolers about pollinators around the world at GEMS 2025

Girls Empowered by Math & Science (GEMS) Conference is an annual event hosted at UW-Parkside to raise awareness about STEM fields for middle school girls. This year, Cook Lab students worked together to plan and host a workshop called “Pollinator Passport” where students could travel around to various stations and learn about pollinators like bats, hummingbirds, moths, honey possums, and of course honeybees!

Cook Lab students (left to right) Justine, Casey, Noor Ain, Kerrigan, and Rachael pose at GEMS 2025.

In addition to the Cook Lab “Pollinator Passport” workshop, several other groups from Marquette also hosted GEMs workshops such as ”Welcome to the Microscope Workshop!”, “Mind Control Your Friends”, and “Guide to Gecko Diversity”.

Students from Marquette University Biological Sciences department pose together between workshop sessions at GEMS 2025.

kerrigan tobin